Home / Poker News July 2010 / The poker grapevine – PartyGaming merges with Bwin
The poker grapevine – PartyGaming merges with Bwin
Posted by: James Carter. - Sat, 2010-07-31 10:01
The fact that Barney Frank’s proposed online poker bill has passed the vote of the House Financial Services Committee, marking the first time ever that US legislators have cast a positive vote on the matter of legal online poker, has set a whole bunch of major events into motion already, despite experts’ warnings that the move was little more than a psychological boost for the supporters of online poker.
One such event was PartyGaming’s reverse takeover of European sports betting giant Bwin. As a consequence of the merger, Bwin will control 51.6 percent of the new monster-company. All of Bwin’s assets as well as liabilities will be transferred to PartyGaming though. While the offensive-minded nature of the deal is obvious from a US perspective, according to experts, the merger was also a defensive move.
Bwin Poker and PartyPoker are supposedly losing online poker market-share in Europe to the monster duo of
Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars. The merger will offer some degree of protection for both companies involved. The real reason behind the undertaking may well be an entirely different one though.
Frank’s bill only cleared the House Financial Services Committee vote with a whole bunch of amendments attached. One such amendment clearly states that poker sites found to have knowingly violated US federal or local laws would not be eligible to receive a license to operate in the new legal online poker market in the US. The two companies worst affected by this little amendment? Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars. The entities with the most to gain off it?
PartyPoker and its newfound partner, Bwin. Without the merger, the two sites would’ve become competitors in the US market, this way though, they’ll have enough firepower to outgun their potentially outlawed and thus crippled competitors.
